The Real Thing?

Discerning a false teaching is like a man who walks up to a bank teller and gives him $200 in twenties for a deposit.  As the teller is counting the money, he places one bill off to the side.  The man asks the teller “Why did you separate that bill from the others?”  The teller responds, “I work with money everyday and I am very familiar with what the real thing looks and feels like.  The bill I put to the side is counterfeit.”

The best way to recognize a counterfeit is to intimately know the real thing.  To be able to discern real Christianity, we must be intimately familiar with real Christianity.  This means a personal relationship with Jesus, time in God’s word, and time in prayer.

Many people feel overwhelmed at this, thinking that a seminary degree is needed to tell the difference between a true Christian belief system and one that simply claims to be Christian.  It is true that if you have ever tried to compile a list of essential Christian doctrines, you found yourself quickly getting into debatable areas.  Thankfully, most of the time nothing this complicated is required.  One simple test is what a group believes about God.  If they fail this test, then you have found a counterfeit.

The Bible teaches that there is only one God and He reveals Himself in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  God has existed in this way in His unchangeable perfection from eternity past and will continue to exist in this way through all eternity.  This is a basic tenet of orthodoxy Christianity which is called the Trinity.  If a belief system denies the Trinity, then it is not orthodox Christianity.

Since I am Baptist, I would suggest looking at the Baptist Faith and Message for the Biblical support of this fundamental doctrine.  However, there are many other good references (Baptist and non-Baptist) that support this doctrine equally well.  To use the test, you do not have to be able to defend the doctrine of the Trinity in a debate; you simply have to ask if they believe it.

Most of us have been visited by Mormon missionaries or by Jehovah’s Witnesses on Saturday mornings.  Many people view the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses as just another Christian denomination.  Both of these groups will claim to be Christian, however both of them deny the Trinity.  They both fail the test and show themselves to be counterfeit versions of Christianity.

Join us in Sunday School and we’ll further examine God’s revelation of Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace…

Steve J.